Director Jordan Giusti (Grevillea) has crafted a richly atmospheric portrait of resilience in the face of disaster with Floodland. Residents of the beautiful Northern Rivers town of Lismore are well accustomed to frequent rainfall, but a series of intense thunderstorms that hit the region in February 2022 caused a deadly flood, destroying the business district and leaving more than 4000 homes uninhabitable. Following the stories of Lismore residents Eli Roth, Harper Dalton and Bundjalung-Yiman woman Carlie Atkinson, this documentary explores the human toll of climate crisis, lessons from First Nations elders gone unheeded and political inaction leaving entire communities with no plan for the future.

Filmed over three years, Floodland was conceived of from the beginning as a collaborative work rather than an arm's-length ethnographic study, per Giusti's filmmaking ethos that "These are real people who are bringing their stories to screen and co-authoring that with you". This sensitive, subject-led approach leads to moments of real intimacy, as residents of the beleaguered region reckon with a history of colonialism and lack of government support in rural Australia, complicated by their personal trauma as survivors. Revealing without feeling exploitative, this is a quietly powerful warning about our future.